Sail hank

ABSTRACT

A hank is provided for rapidly attaching a sail to a stay. The hank has a generally cylindrical body member with a longitudinal channel therethrough large enough to accommodate and slide on a stay on which it is adapted to be mounted. A U-shaped attaching member is mounted on the body and secured to the edge of the sail through a grommet therein to form a hank thereon. A diagonal channel extends through the outer surface of the cylindrical body into the longitudinal channel therein, whereby the hank is adapted to be attached to the stay by inserting the cylindrical body member on the stay through the diagonal channel and rotating the hank until the stay is aligned and rests for slidable movememnt in the longitudinal channel. The top of the cylindrical body member is relatively flat, whereas the bottom surface is diagonal, making an angle with the diagonal channel in the body member. Accordingly, when a sail is mounted on a stay utilizing the aforesaid hanks, another sail can be hoisted on the stay to automatically remove the hanks from the stay, with the flat portion of the leading hank of the hoisted sail removing progressively the hanks of the other sail by coming into contact with the diagonal surface on each hank and rotating it, and releasing it from the stay. Thus, by using the hanks of this invention, a means is provided for rapidly changing sails merely by hoisting another sail.

United States Patent [191 Hirsch [111 3,826,211 July 30, 1974 SAIL HANK [76] Inventor: Jacob Hirsch, 2 E. Sandford Ave.,

Harrison, NY. 10550 [22] Filed: Jan. 10, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 322,539

[52] US. Cl. 114/114 [51] Int. Cl B63h 9/04 [58] Field of Search 114/102, 108, 109, 111,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,267,469 l2/l94l Joys ..ll4/l08 Primary Examiner-Trygve M. Blix Assistant Examiner-Stuart M. Goldstein Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Joseph Levinson [57] ABSTRACT A hank is provided for rapidly attaching a sail to a stay. The hank has a generally cylindrical body member with a longitudinal channel therethrough large enough to accommodate and slide on a stay on which it is adapted to be mounted. A U-shaped attaching member is mounted on the body and secured to the edge of the sail through a grommet therein to form a hank thereon. A diagonal channel extends through the outer surface of the cylindrical body into the longitudinal channeltherein, whereby the hank is adapted to be attached to the stay by inserting the cylindrical body member on the stay through the diagonal channel and rotating the hank until the stay is aligned and rests for slidable movememnt in the longitudinal channel. The top of the cylindrical body member is relatively flat, whereas the bottom surface is diagonal, making an angle with the diagonal channel in the body member. Accordingly, when a sail is mounted on a stay utilizing the aforesaid hanks, another sail can be hoisted on the stay to automatically remove the hanks from the stay, with the flat portion of the leading hank of the hoisted sail removing progressively the hanks of the other sail by coming into contact with the diagonal surface on each hank and rotating it, and releasing it from the stay. Thus, by using the hanks of this invention, a means is provided for rapidly changing sails merely by hoisting another sail.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 1 SAIL HANK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In sailing, sails are conventionally attached to and run up a stay utilizing hanks which are attached to grommets or sewn in the luff of the sail or jib and are hooked or otherwise attached onto the stay, and then hoisted, with the hanks moving up the stay. Although there are many forms of hanks, a type in common use is a spring-loaded snap hook in which the hank is attached to the stay by pulling the spring-loaded pin in the snap hook, with the exposed hook then being applied to the stay and the pin released for locking the hank on the stay. This requires a number of operations, as the number of hanks on a saildepends on the size of the boat and accordingly on the size of the sail; it may contain 18 or more hanks. In thus positioning the hanks of a head sail on a stay, the separate operations are required of pulling the pin to open the hook of the hank, placing the open hook on the stay, and then releasing the pin; and continuing this operation until all of the hanks of the sail have been attached to the stay. The operation is difficult if the environmental conditions are poor, such as rain, spray, or cold conditions, making it difficult to grasp the pins with the hands, as well as being time consuming. Then, too, in the sport of sailboat racing it is often desirable to change a headsail, such as a jib, foresail, or other sail forward of the mast. This requires lowering one sail and attaching another sail onto the stay and then hoisting it aloft. The operations described are time consuming, and precious seconds could be lost during a race, with the difficulty being compounded when several sail changes must be made, which is often the case during the course of a race. Of course, on the more elaborate sailboats that have a variety of headsails such as foresails and jibs, more changes may be required, requiring additional time. in any of the situations mentioned, as well as merely attaching a single sail on a stay, it would be desirable to utilize a hank of a simple construction which requires little time and effort in attaching it to a stay. In the case of the changing of sails it would be desirable that the hank, per se, perform the function of disengaging the hanks of another sail which is to be replaced as a sail is hoisted aloft. Otherwise, the sail change would require the lowering of one sail and attaching of another sail onto the stay, and then hoisting it. Thus, if the sail to be replaced is released as the other sail is hoisted aloft, little time would be lost, and the whole operation would become more automatic.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION new and novel hank which is simple in construction,

sturdy, easy to handle, and is adapted to be quickly attached to a stay.

In carrying out this invention in one illustrative embodiment thereof, a hank is provided having a longitudinal body member with a longitudinal channel therethrough which accommodates a stay which it is adapted to receive. Attaching means are mounted on the body member which are adapted to be secured along the luff of the sail, and a diagonal channel extending through an outer surface of the body member into the longitudinal channel is provided whereby the hank is adapted to be attached to the stay by inserting the body member on a stay through the diagonal channel and rotating the hank until the stay is in alignment and rests for slidable movement in the longitudinal channel. The top of the longitudinal body member is flat, and the bottom surface thereof is diagonal, making an angle with the diagonal channel. The diagonal surface of the hank, in cooperation with the flat surface of another hank, facilitates the automatic removal when the flat surface comes into contact with the diagonal surface, rotating the hank and releasing it through its diagonal channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the hank embodied in this invention.

FIG. 2 is a reverse isometric view of the hank shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic, partial view of a sailboat illustrating a change of sails utilizing the hank of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of hanks of different sails utilized to illustrate the removal action of one hank by another.

FIG. 5 is another front view of the same hanks of FIG. 4 showing the operation of the removal action of one hank on another.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a hank having a general reference character 10 is provided, having a generally cylindrical longitudinal body member 12 with a longitudinal channel 18 extending through the length thereof. An upper surface 14 of the longitudinal body member 12 is flat, and at the other extremity thereof a diagonal lower surface 16 is provided. The body member 12 has a relatively flat surface 15 thereon to accommodate the mounting of a U-shaped attaching member 24 thereon by means of a rivet 25 or other suitable means which extends into the channel 18. A diagonal channel 20 extends from the outer surface of the longitudinal member 12 into the longitudinal channel 18, providing a means for a stay to be positioned in the channel 18. The U-shaped member 24, which forms an attaching means, is secured to the luff of a sail by a bolt 26 having a spacer 28. When theluff of the sail is provided with grommets, the spacer would be positioned in the grommet and the attaching means secured thereto by the bolt 26. The longitudinal body member 12 is also provided with a tensioning means in the form of a detent means 22, which is illustrated as a set screw extending through the body member 12 into the edge of longitudinal channel 18. The set screw 22 also is positioned against the U-shaped attaching member 24 to prevent rotation of the attaching member and the body member 12 so that the hank will always be in proper position for attachment to the stay.

The longitudinal body member 12 should be made of a material which has good machinability, strength, and some degree of flex or give. Certain types of plastics are suitable, such as a material sold under the tradename Delrin. Other types of plastics or a nylon type of material may be utilized for the body member. The longitudinal channel 18 will be slightly larger than the stay on which it is adapted to be mounted so that it will slide on the stay when the stay is positioned therein. The diagonal channel 20 will be approximately the same size as the stay on which it is to be mounted. The U-shaped attaching member 24 may be of metal, or it can be made of nylon tape, in which case it would be sewn on the luff of the sail, or sewn through the accommodating grommet on the luff of the sail. Although not shown in the drawings, washers may be used to mount the U- shaped member on the longitudinal body member 12, and washers would be desirable, particularly if nylon tape is used to secure the body member to the sail.

The detent means 22 provides a means for producing tension so that when the hank is mounted on the stay by inserting the hank onto the stay through the diagonal channel and rotating it, a snap action is produced, with the stay being positioned in longitudinal channel 18. All that is necessary in such a mounting is to insert the stay in the hank through the diagonal channel 20, rotating the hank through the angle of the channel 20 to align it with the longitudinal channel 18. Although different angles may be used, from the standpoint of simplicity of manufacture the 45 angle illustrated is preferred for both the diagonal channel 20 and the diagonal surface 16 of the body member 12, which form a 90 angle at their intersection. The detent means 22 performs the dual function of tensioning the hank on the stay and with the set screw 22 the tension can be adjusted, producing a snap action. The other function is performed by the rear of the set screw 22 in preventing the rotation of the body member 12 with respect to the U-shaped attaching member 24. If other detent means were utilized, such as a ball and spring type arrangement which would be perfectly suitable, some means would have to extend through the back to prevent rotation so that the hank would always be in the proper position. A separate detent means is not necessary if the material of which the body member 12 is made has sufficient resiliency to provide the necessary snap-in action. This, however, would require precise machining of all of the hanks so that the same pressure is required for getting it on and off the stay, and if no tensioning means were utilized other than the resiliency of the material, you would still need a pin or a projection to restrict the rotation of the body member 12 so that it would always be in the proper position on the stay. This positioning is important when it is desired to remove one sail with the hanks of another sail, in which case the diagonal surface 16 would always have to be pointing down on coming into contact with the flat surface 14 of another hank.

With the above description it will be apparent that a hank is provided which is readily positioned on a stay with very little effort or waste of energy. The diagonal channel 20 of the hank is aligned with the stay and the stay forced through it and rotated into the longitudinal channel 18 with a single rotation snap-action type movement. For removal, the reverse is required,

namely the rotation of the bank until the stay is aligned with the diagonal channel 20, at which time the tension is released and the hank pops off the stay.

FIG. 3 illustrates how the stay of this invention may be utilized for automatically mounting one sail while at the same time releasing a sail which is to be replaced. A sailboat 50 having a mast 44 has a double pulley 38 carried by a block or shiv 39 mounted on the mast 44. A stay 30 is mounted to the mast 44 and to a bowsprit 46 on the bow of the sailboat 50. This illustrates a form of sloop rig, but in accordance with this invention, a cutter rig which would have two sails and two stays, or any other type of rigging, may be utilized, as long as it is necessary to accommodate rapid sail changes. A sail 36 is shown mounted on the stay 30' by hanks 40, with a line or halyard 42 secured at the other end over the pulley 38. Another sail 32, which is positioned by hanks 10 on the stay 30, is shown being hoisted by line 34 over the pulley 38 on the stay 30. In making the sail change, all that is necessary is for the hanks 10 to be positioned on the stay 30 and then hoisted aloft. The lead bank 10 then engages the lower surfaces of hanks 40 to release them from the stay in the mannershown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The flat upper surface of the hank 10 comes in contact with the lower diagonal surface of the hank 40, which surface is opposed to the diagonal channel therein. As the sail 32 is hoisted upward, the upper surface, coming in contact with the diagonal lower surface of the hank 40, rotates the hank 40 until the diagonal channel therein is aligned with the stay 30, at which time additional pressure disengages the hank 40 from the stay 30, and the procedure is continued until the last of the hanks 40 are released from the stay 30 and the sail 32 has been completely hoisted on the stay 30. The sail 36 is then completely disengaged from the stay 30, and the sail may be dropped by releasing line 42.

Not only is the new and novel hank of the present invention easily applied, as can be seen from the above description, the changing of sails having the same new and novel hank is utilized such that the hank of one sail automatically releases the hanks on the stay of the other sail as it is hoisted, thereby providing an automatic means for removing one sail from the stay while another is being hoisted thereon. This eliminates the time consuming effort in dropping the sail 36, removing the hanks from the stay, putting the hanks of sail 32 on the stay, and then hoisting sail 32. The operation is simpler, more efficient, and little time is lost in the sail change, which may be vital in a racing situation, or in a hazardous situation where a rapid sail change may be needed.

Since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention is not considered limited .to the examples chosen for purposes of disclosure, and covers all changes and modifications which do not constitute departues from the true spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim;

1. A hank for rapidly attaching a sail to a stay, comprising a. a longitudinal body member having a longitudinal channel therethrough large enough to accommodate and slide on a stay which said longitudinal channel is adapted'to receive,

b. attaching means mounted on said body member adapted to be secured along the edge of a sail providing a hank thereon,

c. a diagonal channel extending through an outer surface of said body member into said longitudinal channel, said hank being adapted to be attached to a stay by inserting said body member on a stay through said diagonal channel and rotating said hank until the stay is in alignment and rests for slidable movement in said longitudinal channel,

(1. said longitudinal body member having a relatively flat upper surface on one longitudinal end thereof and a diagonal surface along the other longitudinal end thereof, said diagonal surface running in a direction opposed to the diagonal channel in said body member.

2. The hank set forth in claim 1 having a detent means mounted in said body member and extending into said longitudinal channel for providing tension and retaining the stay in said longitudinal channel of said hank.

3. The hank set forth in claim 2 wherein said detent means is in the form of an adjustable set screw thereby providing an adjustable detent means.

4. The hank set forth in claim 1 wherein said diagonal channel is at approximately a 45 angle with respect to said longitudinal channel.

5. The hank set forth in claim 1 wherein said diagonal channel in said body member and said diagonal surface on said body member form approximately a right angle. l II 

1. A hank for rapidly attaching a sail to a stay, comprising a. a longitudinal body member having a longitudinal channel therethrough large enough to accommodate and slide on a stay which said longitudinal channel is adapted to receive, b. attaching means mounted on said body member adapted to be secured along the edge of a sail providing a hank thereon, c. a diagonal channel extending through an outer surface of said body member into said longitudinal channel, said hank being adapted to be attached to a stay by inserting said body member on a stay through said diagonal channel and rotating said hank until the stay is in alignment and rests for slidable movement in said longitudinal channel, d. said longitudinal body member having a relatively flat upper surface on one longitudinal end thereof and a diagonal surface along the other longitudinal end thereof, said diagonal surface running in a direction opposed to the diagonal channel in said body member.
 2. The hank set forth in claIm 1 having a detent means mounted in said body member and extending into said longitudinal channel for providing tension and retaining the stay in said longitudinal channel of said hank.
 3. The hank set forth in claim 2 wherein said detent means is in the form of an adjustable set screw thereby providing an adjustable detent means.
 4. The hank set forth in claim 1 wherein said diagonal channel is at approximately a 45* angle with respect to said longitudinal channel.
 5. The hank set forth in claim 1 wherein said diagonal channel in said body member and said diagonal surface on said body member form approximately a right angle. 